Ex-Pengrowth CEO comes out of retirement to lead oilsands producer MEG Energy

The appointment comes less than five months after Evans’ retirement from Pengrowth Energy Corp., where he had been CEO for nine years.

At the time, 61-year-old Evans said he would take a few months off but planned to assume an undefined advocacy role for the oil and gas industry after that.

MEG chairman Jeffrey McCaig says Evans was selected after an exhaustive search by a recruitment firm, adding he has been asked to focus on strengthening the company’s balance sheet while growing production through small-scale technology-driven expansion projects to 113,000 barrels of bitumen per day by 2020.

Doerr, a MEG director, had been filling in for co-founder Bill McCaffrey, who retired in May after 19 years at the helm.

Evans has more than 35 years of experience in the oilpatch, including six years as the CEO of Focus Energy Trust.

“I am excited to take on the leadership of MEG at this pivotal moment in the company’s history,” said Evans in a news release.